Libraries have long been a community resource for the do-it-yourself movement; if you want to know how to do something, chances are the local library has books on how to do it. But at Bill Library in Ledyard, residents are sharing their “maker” skills live at a monthly meetup.

Andrea Buka, head of technical services at Bill Library, said the monthly Maker Meetups came out of the teen program, which she started 15 years ago.

“I had a lot of adults who were disappointed because they wanted to come to them. We did things like computer coding, all kinds of crafts and maker-type things,” she said.

Today, the Maker Meetups are held monthly as a pop-up maker space at the library, where a member of the community comes in to teach others how to make something. Previous classes have included how to mend books, sew, hack your holiday lighting and use the library’s 3D printer.

The maker program also holds the Cardboard Regatta every summer, in which teams build boats from cardboard and race them at Highland Lake. Some of the programs have an age restriction for safety reasons, or children need adult supervision, but most of the programs are open to all ages.

Speakers are a mix of experts in the community and other skilled makers she finds.

The maple tapping class that was held last February started after a conversation at the pancake breakfast held at Ledyard Congregational Church next door. Similarly, the Jan. 22 class on making chain mail started with a conversation with resident Dwight Snowberger, who had participated in the regatta and started tinkering with chain mail in the fall.

After a brief introduction and chain mail history by Buka, Snowberger showed the class of 11 the steps he took to turn stainless steel wire from the hardware store into a chain mail glove. He said the process requires a lot of material and a lot of time — the single glove took him more than 50 hours — but it’s a relatively simple pattern that repeats.

“I’m just sitting downstairs, watching the Bruins on TV, doing the chain mail thing, making links one day and then weaving them altogether another day,” he said. He compared the hobby to knitting because it’s a good way to pass time.

Resident Caron Wieringa taught knitting at the October meetup after responding to Buka’s request for classes on the Ledyard Facebook forum. She said she started knitting at age 7 and has taught several people how to knit, including her daughter, and even though her class of five was only able to get to the knit stitch in the time they had, she was glad she did it.

“It was a lot easier teaching than I thought it was going to be,” she said. “The people who attended were great. They came in with positive attitudes, they worked really, really hard. They weren’t afraid to ask for extra help when they got stuck on something. It was a good group, and I had fun teaching it.”

Resident Leah Lozier attended Wieringa’s knitting class and brought her husband Marc and son Logan to the chain mail class. The three were working on making rings from the wire and dowel Snowberger had passed around as 8-year-old Logan schemed ways to make a sword out of chain mail.

She said she enjoyed the knitting class and wants to continue, and she came to the chain mail class because it was more in Logan’s area of interest because he likes Minecraft and swords.

Buka said patrons request classes from time to time, and she would love to host a lawnmower repair course or a homebrewing class.

Future Maker Meetups include a session on how to use manual settings on cameras and a Robot Day in which students and adults with microcomputers or other robotics projects can bring them in for a show and tell. She is also working with Spark Makerspace in New London to start a Maker Faire this summer.

a.hutchinson@theday.com